The important work of our Senate is nothing to hoot at
Many Canadians had a good laugh over the recently released book The Wise Owls, written to explain the role of the Senate to young children. The majority of senators, who first learned of the book from the media, found it less funny.
At a time when they have been working hard to restore the image of this unpopular institution, they have been tripped up again. And, as is often the case, the injury was self-inflicted.
I’m not kidding when I say “working hard.” If there’s one thing that has astonished me since taking my seat in the Senate a little over a year ago, it’s the amount of work to be tackled.
We’ve got nothing to complain about, mind you. It is a great privilege to be a senator. But it is far from the cushy job often described by the media and imagined by the public: The days are long and extremely full, and the weekends are consumed by work as well.
What do senators do, besides settle arguments among squirrels, beavers, foxes and other MPs?
Last week, for example, they passed Bill C-6, which repeals the changes to the Citizenship Act introduced by Stephen Harper’s Conservatives. Before passing it, however, senators made an important amendment so people who are threatened with revocation of their citizenship can access an appeal process.
This amendment is the result of a tremendous effort by the bill’s sponsor, independent senator and immigration expert Ratna Omidvar.
The Senate also amended and passed Bill C-37, which will make it easier to open supervised drug consumption sites. The Senate’s main amendment will require staff at these sites to offer clients “alternative pharmaceutical therapy” before they inject the illegal (and often deadly) substance they brought with them.
This amendment was proposed by Conservative Sen. Vernon White, a former senior officer with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The amendment was supported by Liberal and independent senators, and is a fine example of the non-partisan work that the Senate can accomplish.
With the support of a number of Liberals and Conservatives, the independent senators are working on reforms to make the institution less partisan and more effective.
The initiative is still in its early stages and is meeting with definite resistance. It requires a careful hand. In the face of public disillusionment with the Senate, we need to act boldly and decisively, but we must not make changes without thinking them through.
The media are naturally more interested — and I, as a former journalist, certainly will not blame them — in the fate of Sen. Don Meredith than in the daily workings of the upper house.
What will people remember from this whole issue — that a senator behaved disgracefully or that at least this time the Senate acted decisively?
Expelling a parliamentarian who has not been convicted of a crime is unprecedented in the Senate’s 150-year history. Yet that was precisely what senators were preparing to do when Meredith announced his resignation last week.
At a time when all of our institutions are facing criticism, Canada’s Senate has a particularly tough hill to climb. Regardless of the impression left by the owl story, I can attest that the members of this house are doing everything they can to regain Canadians’ trust.